downward
adverb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L189339 on Wikidata ↗adjective
- into the background' sense-- away from the anchor. Progression along a path is more naturally considered this way than down-06 in the absence of an entity providing vantage from the endpoint. (use this for 'go' perspectives)
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈdaʊnwɚd/ / /ˈdaʊnwəd/ / /ˈduːnwɐd/
adj
Etymology: Etymology tree English down Proto-Indo-European *wert-der. Proto-Germanic *wardaz Old English -weard English -ward English downward From down + -ward.
- Moving, sloping or oriented down.
“He spoke with a downward glance.”
“But this foul, grim, and urchin-snouted boar, Whose downward eye still looketh for a grave, Ne’er saw the beauteous livery that he wore;”
- Located at a lower level.
“In her chast Current oft the Goddess laves, And with Celestial Tears augments the Waves. Oft in her Glass the musing Shepherd spies The headlong Mountains and the downward Skies, The watry Landskip of the pendant Woods, And absent Trees that tremble in the Floods;”
“1793, Thomas Taylor (translator), The Phædo in The Cratylus, Phædo, Parmenides and Timæus of Plato, London: Benjamin and John White, p. 235, […] often revolving itself under the earth, [the river] flows into the more downward parts of Tartarus.”
adv
Etymology: Etymology tree English down Proto-Indo-European *wert-der. Proto-Germanic *wardaz Old English -weard English -ward English downward From down + -ward.
- Toward a lower level, whether in physical space, in a hierarchy, or in amount or value.
“His position in society moved ever downward.”
“The natural disasters put downward pressure on the creditworthiness of the nation’s insurance groups.”
- At a lower level.
“Dagon his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man / And downward Fish […]”
- Southward.
“If we turn to the New World, we find that among the American Indians, from the Eskimo of Alaska downward to Brazil and still farther south, homosexual customs have been very frequently observed.”